Joe Maddon Doesn't Want the Cubs Pimping After Home Runs

Quirky reputation aside, Joe Maddon remains a fairly old school manager. Or at least when it comes to players posing and pimping after home runs. The Chicago Sun-Times relays a story from Spring Training this week involving third-string catcher Wellington Castillo admiring a home run — and then looking for hitting coach Manny Ramirez in the dugout.

Maddon wasn’t happy about it when he found out the details and later told reporters:

"“It’s act like you’ve done it before and you can do it again,” he said. “The touchdown celebration, all that stuff, pounding your chest after dunking a basketball, all this stuff that’s become part of today’s generation of athletes – whether you agree with it being right or wrong doesn’t matter. “I would just prefer that our guys would act like they’ve done it before and that they’re going to do it again.”"

Obviously we’re not going to solve baseball’s unwritten rules of etiquette any time soon. Some players love to react outwardly after a home run, while others bristle when this happens. It’s one of those baseball things that often makes outsides who’ve never played the game at the professional level scratch their heads over all the rules — unwritten or not. As always, if you’re a pitcher and a batter’s home run reaction pisses you off — try not to serve up home runs.

Professional baseball remains obsessed, by some, over playing the game the “right way” … whatever that right way is in real life.

In the case of the Cubs, you can somewhat see what Maddon is trying to instill. Chicago is a young team. Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo i2 25. Outfielder Jorge Soler is 23, while infielder Javier Baez is 22. Highly-touted prospect Kris Bryant is 23 and hasn’t played a Major League inning yet, so technically whenever he hits his first big-league homer he hasn’t done it before. (He will probably hit more than one career home run, leaving Maddon’s intended ‘act like you’ll do it again’ wishes possible.)

As Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk pointed out on Twitter, Maddon didn’t have an issue with how Yunel Escobar making a gesture when crossing home plate during 2013. As is always the case, these baseball unwritten rules and stuff are very difficult to follow.

[Getty]